George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer (5 December 1839-25 June 1876) was a brevet Major-General of the US Army during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Custer served as a cavalry officer during the Civil War before he was given command of the US 7th Cavalry Regiment on the Great Plains during the war against the Sioux. He was renowned for his leadership of the cavalry against the Native Americans, and he is best known for his "last stand" at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

American Civil War hero
George Armstrong Custer was born on 5 December 1839 in New Rumley, Ohio, and he graduated from West Point on 24 June 1861 in a hurried graduation caused by the outbreak of the American Civil War. Custer had a rough reputation at the academy, being nearly expelled on many occasions for pranks against fellow students, but he would be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US 2nd Cavalry Regiment before rising to the rank of brevet Brigadier-General under Alfred Pleasonton in 1863. Custer commanded the Michigan Cavalry Brigade at the age of 23, one of the youngest generals of the US Army, earning him the nickname, "the Boy General". Custer's showy and personalized uniform, noted for its red neckerchief, was initially disrespected but later adopted by many of his men; Custer was loved by his superior officer Pleasonton, and Custer once wrote that, "No father can love his son more than General Pleasonton loves me." His reckless charges won battles, including the cavalry skirmishes at the battle of Gettysburg. Custer would be wounded at Gettysburg and then the Battle of Culpeper Court House, and he would be commended for bravery many times during the war. On 15 April 1865, he received a brevet promotion to Major-General, his highest rank.

Trip to the Frontier
When the war ended, Custer was given command of a division, but it would be mustered out later in 1865, and some disgruntled veterans tried to ambush him. However, he was warned of the plot by one of his men, and he avoided death. Custer would be offered a position as Adjutant-General for Benito Juarez's revolutionaries in Mexico during the war with France, but Secretary of State William H. Seward opposed this, as he was unwilling to allow an American officer to lead foreign forces. However, on 28 July 1866 he was appointed to command the US 7th Cavalry Regiment, serving in Winfield Scott Hancock's expedition against the Cheyenne. In early November 1868, he established Camp Supply in the Indian Territory and led the raid on the Washita River on 27 November 1868, killing Chief Black Kettle and massacring the Native Americans of the village. Custer's victory here was one of the first US victories in the southern Great Plains war against the Indians, and he was hailed as a hero by some, and as a savage by others.

Great Sioux War
In 1874, Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota in one of his expeditions, leading to a gold rush and illegal white settlement on Sioux land. On 17 May 1876, he left Fort Abraham Lincoln with the 7th Cavalry to force the Native Americans into their reservations, and on 25 June he decided to attack a village of the Sioux tribe that was home to Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Gall's warriors. Custer led one battalion, Marcus Reno another, and Frederick Benteen a third, and his battalion was encircled on a hill. Reno withdrew after his scout Bloody Knife's brains were shot out onto his face, and Benteen decided to follow Reno rather than deliver ammunition packs to Custer as ordered. Therefore, Custer and his battalion were left to their deaths, and they had a brave last stand against the Indians. Custer would be shot in the side and wounded, but he would resist the Indians until him and all of his men were dead.